Best Investments

JustinEvans9964

Hi all,
I am in the fortunate position of having somewhere in the region of £500 per month disposable income and wondered what the best option for it is. I still have 13 years left on my mortgage and have only one loan that is manageable and due to end in 3 years. My pension isn't great, probably worth around £80k at the moment with around 10-12 years left in work. I have been doing some research and thinking that the best way to maximise my long term financial goals would be:
Overpay on my mortgage.
Pay AVC into my workplace pension.
Invest in a stocks and shares ISA.
Invest in a property (I am thinking buy to let, though I would consider a standard repayment).
Really appreciate your advice.
Thanks
J 

Costabit

I don't know enough about the benefits of AVCs over a SIPP and am sure the more knowledgeable here will be along to help you but for me, increased pension contributions of some sort would be the way to go.
In most cases pension beats ISA for similar investments, I cant see being a landlord is an attractive thought tax wise, and as long as your mortgage rate is low enough, you should be able to beat the rate with a long term investment plan.

dunstonh

AVCs are largely obsolete nowadays.    Employers are no longer required to offer an AVC and most don't.  Those that do have frequently not updated their AVC from the pre 2006 terms.  Which often makes them poor value by todays standards.  The exception is whether you can use the AVC in conjunction with the main scheme for payment of the tax free cash.

Some employers, mainly the public sector, have hybrid additional pension schemes that can be good value.

So, what is this AVC like?

Albermarle

Have a scroll through the forum as the same type of question ( pensions vs mortgage etc ) gets asked every day .

TVAS

You have only given us half the story:
Missing mortgage amount and loan redemption value.
Missing non pension savings. Just because you say you don't have much pension you seem to imply that you have non pension savings how much?
Missing target pension income?

BTL why?
To get yield one would have to buy a cheap property i.e. not in the South East, affluent Market towns or the shires. The tax advantages have gone, if you buy a Leasehold Flat you might as well self harm as Leasehold is a legal form of self harm so at the very least it has to be freehold. It is hassle and high risk. If you go down this route only take on financial service professional and legal professional as they cannot default because they need a good credit history to work.

AVC or SIPP
I am tending towards AVC if it is taken with main scheme pension so you take all or most of tax free cash from AVC fund first so you have a higher starting pension that will increase. You need to ask the scheme and get it in writing.

Loan
3 years to go get a redemption value and go to MSE credit card and see if you can get a cash transfer. The credit card will put the money in your bank account you repay the loan. Cut up the card. The offer will last for a certain time and will be 0% and possibly 0% fee. This means paying less for the existing debt and you have flexibility to make overpayments unlike a loan. If you have not repaid the debt by the end of the term simply do the same again on this time it will be a balance transfer rather than a cash transfer.

Mortgage overpayments and Pension Income.
Apart from basic state pension and 80k current pension value you have not said what your target pension is. Nor do we know the mortgage debt or indeed the interest rate. 

sevenhills

JustinEvans9964 said:

Overpay on my mortgage.
Pay AVC into my workplace pension.
Invest in a stocks and shares ISA.
Invest in a property (I am thinking buy to let, though I would consider a standard repayment).

You haven't mentioned unit trusts. Similar to investing in shares, except that instead of just buying shares in one company, a unit trust contains many different companies. So that spreads the risk.

I prefer high risk myself, so I buy individual shares within a ISA/SIP

JustinEvans9964

Thanks all, really helpful. Apologies for the gaps in the story. Realistically, as I said I now find myself in the fortunate position of having some spare disposable income and just really looking for a steer on what to do with it. Not necessarily looking for a short term profit and probably all driven by the fact that at 56 I know my pension isn't what it should be and looking for ideas on best return over the course of the next 11 years or so.
Thanks again.